For Evermore
by Chanceless
Summary: Tis my little story about Theresa..and how she became Talon. It's a Halon...Duh.
1. Beginning Nightmare

**Disclaimer: No, I do NOT own Static Shock, nor do I own it's characters. I do own Alex...but he's a friggin jerk, so it doesn't matter.**

**_Ti arno, ti arno, para ahora y algunavezmas_**

By H.M. Wood

**Chapter 1:**

_**Comienzo Pesadilla**_

Eighteen-year old Theresa Gonzales perched on the arm of her couch, smiling happily as the tinge of a blush spread across her honey-toned face.

A black-haired teenage boy sat beside her in the seat of the couch, rubbing a hand casually along Theresa's thigh while carefully watching her reaction.

"Hey baby…"

He began, staring intently into her shaded hazel eyes.

"_Si?"_

The black-haired boy shook his head in slight disapproval.

"Baby, you know better than that…you're a US chick now, you'll use the same lang' everyone else is."

Theresa lowered her head in apology.

"Sorry. What were you going to say?"

The boy's dark eyes flashed, though his grin alerted her that it was not anger he was expressing to her.

"It doesn't matter."

He reached over and grabbed her wrist, causing her to lost balance and topple on top of him. Still grinning, he brought his lips to hers and kissed her deeply without giving her a chance to think about pulling away. Theresa sighed and closed her eyes, kissing him back. Her hands trailed along the line of his jawbone while hands of his own first tugged at and freed the ponytail at the back of her head, then ran his fingers through the softness of the brown hair that cascaded to her shoulders.

Theresa sighed again, this time in pleasure as his hands moved downward, as did his lips.

"_Alexio…"_

She murmured softly when his lips separated from hers, expecting it to have all been over right then.

"I love you, baby."

Alex muttered before moving his mouth downward to the crease in her neck and nipping at it roughly in a pleasurable punishment for using a Spanish reference to his name.

Theresa immediately corrected herself, her voice sharply rising in surprise,

"Alex!"

Alex nipped again and moved lower, his hands trailing down to the straps of Theresa's tank top, where he kept traveling lower to lift her shirt up over her head. Theresa's eyes opened and flickered as she reached out her hands to stop his.

"Alex…no."

She whispered firmly.

"No?"

Alex echoed, questioning her protest.

"We've been through this, baby. You're mine, remember? You let me do what I want."

Theresa shook her head and sat up, reaching up a hand to arrange her hair back into a ponytail. Alex's hands stopped her.

"We're not finished, baby."

"Alex…"

Theresa pleaded, imploring to him with her eyes. Alex ignored her and reached a hand behind her back, flipping the two of them over in one swift movement so that he was now positioned on top of her.

"We're. Not. Finished."

He restated firmly, moving his hands down to unbutton and remove Theresa's Levis Jeans. Her eyes widened. Planting her palms flat on his chest, she pushed in an attempt to shove him off her.

Alex merely grabbed both her wrists with a hand and held them above her head while he again locked lips with her. Theresa refused to kiss him back, sealing her lips closed in determination. Alex's eyes flashed again, and she could tell that this time he was angered.

The back of his hand rapidly swept across the side of her face in a slap. Theresa gasped; he had never hit her before. Her cheek stinging with the blow of his impact, she frowned and quickly swung her legs up over the edge of the couch and delivered a swift kick to Alex's gut. Alex released his hold on Theresa's wrists and gasped for breath. She took her chance and darted off the couch, running for the door of the apartment. Not looking where she was going, she tipped on an empty liquor bottle and plummeted to the floor. Alex, soon recovering from the shock due to Theresa's kick, dove off the couch after her. Theresa scrambled back to her feet and threw the door open, sprinting out of her apartment.

She could hear Alex's footsteps on hot pursuit behind her, but she didn't look back, even after he called for her to stop. Dashing down the steps of her apartment complex, she frantically looked around for which way to go. She continued straight, in the direction of the Dakota City docks.

"Dammit, stop running! I'm not gonna hurt you!"

The tone of his voice behind her more than betrayed his words.

Theresa heard a loud 'oomph' as Alex made a lunge for her but missed and fell as she sidestepped out of his reach. Out of breath, Theresa stopped at the docks and hid behind a stack of crates just in case Alex was still chasing her.

Screams suddenly erupted from the muffled city noises, and Theresa knew something was terribly wrong. A huge 'bang' was heard from behind her, and she turned around to see clouds of thick purple gas racing toward her. Her eyes widened, a scream escaping her lips.

The purple gas collided with her, filling her lungs as she inhaled it and passed out.

**A/N: **Um…in case we don't know Spanish here…

_Ti arno, ti arno, para ahora y algunavezmas_—I love you, I love you, for now and evermore.

_Comienzo Pesadilla_—Beginning Nightmare

_Si—_Yes.


	2. Bangs' of change

**Chapter 2: 'Bangs' of change**

Her head spinning, Theresa opened her eyes. A throbbing pain pulsed where her head had hit the ground where she still lay. She groaned softly and pushed herself up in a sitting position, trying to clear her head. Alex was nowhere to be seen—which was a good thing, she decided after a few moments. A chilling wind blew by her, but she didn't feel cold at all. Instead, she felt pleasantly warm, as though she was being blanketed by a comforting, feathery outer layer. Feeling something from her arms drag across the ground beneath her, Theresa looked down to see what it was. What she saw caused her to scream in panic.

She was covered in orange feathers, but that wasn't what scared her; because attached to her arms from her shoulder blades was a pair of feathered wings. Theresa's breathing became more rapid, and, in sudden shock, she doubled over and vomited onto the damp ground before passing out again.

When Theresa woke again hours later, her head spun even more and she had to swallow hard to keep from vomiting a second time. She shakily stood up on weak legs, tears falling from her eyes onto the shining orange feathers that covered her. She was hardly able to put one foot in front of the other for lack of balance.

Looking down again, Theresa saw that instead of having human feet, in their place was a pair of clawed bird talons. Panicked, she put her hands in front of her face and saw talons instead of fingers there also.

"_Ti loca…_"

She murmured in disbelief.

Looking back up, Theresa found that she had absentmindedly walked to the bottom stair of her apartment complex. With a sigh, she dragged herself awkwardly up the steps to her door. She opened it and looked inside, surprised that it hadn't been ransacked and burglarized for the door being left slightly ajar. Walking cautiously inside, she seemed ready to jump at the slightest sound.

Theresa sat on the couch and buried her head in her hands, sobbing violently. After she had cried all the tears she thought she had, Theresa glanced at her appearance in the reflection of a hand mirror lying on a makeshift coffee table. She sighed, noting how badly she needed a shower.

"Later."

She muttered aloud to herself.

Wanting to figure out what to do first, she looked again at the wings on her arms and sighed.

A sudden voice from behind her split the eerie silence.

"Well, well, well. Looks like you're one of the freaks now."

Theresa jumped, startled. She knew that voice. It was the one that had gotten her that way.

"Alex…"

She whispered hoarsely in shock.

Alex, leaning against the wall across from her, smirked.

"Hey baby."

He took a step toward her.

"I'm willing to forgive and forget…all you have to say is yes."

Theresa frowned and turned her gaze to the floor, which suddenly seemed very interesting. Taking her silence for submission, Alex took another step toward her, his eyes glinting in the dim light of her darkened apartment.

"Come here, hun."

He finally got close enough to where he could put his arms around her.

"No."

Theresa willed herself to resist him, his comforting presence. Tears welled up in her eyes as she found herself unable o blink them back.

Alex's hands brushed through her orange feathers, ignoring her plea of protest.

"I love you, girl."

He bent his head down to kiss her, and she suddenly smelled the liquor in his breath. He'd been drinking. That was the only reason he had taken her back.

Theresa choked back a sob.

"Alex…you're drunk."

She again refused to kiss him back.

Alex pulled away and stared at her, the glint in his eyes now an icy flash.

"You can't turn me away, babe."

Theresa tried to turn and run, but his firm grip around her waist stopped her.

"No!"

She protested again, her voice rising as she felt a new flame of determination rising inside of her.

"Baby, you don't mean that."

Theresa responded with an icy glare.

"It's _over, _Alexio. _Leave._"

Enraged by her resistance, Alex stood his ground, still firmly gripping Theresa by her waist.

"Kiss me, Theresa."

Theresa reached up a clawed hand and swiped at his face, hearing a scream of mixed raged and pain from him moments later. Alex released his hold on her and clutched his bleeding face.

Theresa made a run for it again, but was stopped as Alex reached out and grabbed her wrist with a hand, twisting her arm at an agonizing angle, his fingernails digging hard past the feathers. Theresa let out a sharp cry of pain and crumpled to the floor, looking up at Alex through teary eyes, though the look within them still burned with the same contempt. Alex ignored the searing pain and the blood dripping from his face, but knelt down on top of Theresa without saying anything. Theresa was finished.

She'd had enough .With a sudden burst of fury, she screamed. And earsplitting shriek cut through the air, but something else happened as well. Jagged, purple hypersonic waves emitted from her mouth, colliding with Alex, who clapped his hands over his ears while being blown backwards fractions of a second later.

Theresa clamped her mouth shut and scrambled back as far as she could, her eyes wide in horror of what she'd just done. Shortly recovering from the blast, Alex shakily stood up and ran out of the door without looking back. Theresa stayed where she was against the wall, not caring if anyone would come and burglarize her apartment from the open door. She pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on top of them, hugging herself as she drifted into a fitful sleep.

Waking the next day to sun streaming through her window, Theresa stretched and yawned with her eyes still closed, forgetting for a moment what had happened the day before until something comfortingly soft rubbed against the side of her face. Her eyes fluttered open, and the memories flooded back.

"So I'm not crazy….it wasn't a dream…"

Tears again blurred her vision, and she brushed them away with the back of a feathered hand. Noticing the blood staining her claws, Theresa remembered the mark she had inflicted to Alex's face. Probably permanent, she decided grimly after a moment's contemplation.

She also decided that she needed a drink.

Theresa stood and walked to the door, again noticing her reflection in the mirror as she passed by.

'_What's the use?'_

She thought dejectedly as she walked out the door.

Heading down past the stairs of her apartment complex, she immediately noticed that something was different from the time she had fled from Alex on her previous escapade. The streets of the slums were quieter than usual, not occupied with their accustomed flow of gangsters, punks, or any of the lower class citizens of downtown Dakota City. Nervous, Theresa swiftly made her way to the small tavern at the end of an alley. A sign hanging on the door caught her eye, reading,

"_No Bang-Babies Admitted"_.

Theresa cocked her head in confusion before placing a hand flat on the door and pushing it open, walking in.

The loud tavern sounds reached her ears at first, but as soon as she stepped inside, everything turned a deathly quiet.

Theresa could feel the stares pricking at her back as she approached the counter. The bartender shrank back in fear, eyeing the claws on her hands.

Theresa frowned. Something was strangely amiss. She didn't see or hear the man creeping up behind her with a gun in hand until it was too late.

A shot echoed throughout the tavern as Theresa crumpled to the floor, grasping her shoulder and writhing in pain. Her lips separated to let out a scream, and the hypersonic purple sound waves crashed into the occupied bar, sending its occupants to the floor. The bartender grabbed a gun from behind the counter and aimed at Theresa, his finger on the trigger.

"Die, mutant bitch."

He muttered before pulling the trigger.

But instead of hearing the sound of the explosion from the gun, Theresa heard the man cry out in pain, the weapon falling from his grasp. Theresa opened on eye and gasped. A boy her age looked down at her, his fists engulfed in flame. His flaming red hair was streaked with blonde, and his eyes flashed in defiance.

"Come on."

He told her impatiently, throwing sideways glances at the other people still in the tavern to keep them cowering away from him. Theresa stared up at the stranger with wide eyes. The stranger glared at her.

"Hurry up! Look, do you want to _stay_ here?"

Clutching her wounded shoulder with a clawed hand, Theresa slowly stood up and limped in the direction of the exit. The boy sighed irritably and rolled his eyes up at the ceiling.

"Ebon…"

He called in a bored, singsong manner. The tavern suddenly felt cold, as if it had been robbed of all its warmth. A looming shadow stretched from the corner and moved toward Theresa, taking the shape of a human form.

"Need a lift, birdie?"

A male sinister voice asked from the shadow as glowing white eyes became visible in what appeared to be a face. Theresa nodded hesitantly. The shadow-man narrowed his eyes at her in an intimidating manner, watching as she cowered back in fear.

**A/N: **_Ti loca_—(I'm pretty sure this means) I'm crazy


	3. Chapter 3: Talon

**Chapter 3: Talon**

"Psh. Yeah right…like you really need to be more scared of us than you are them."

He remarked, jerking his thumb in the direction of the tavern's occupants still paralyzed in fear.

The scream of approaching sirens slowly drew nearer.

"Ebon, we've gotta go."

The first stranger said, crossing his arms indignantly over his chest.

The second stranger nodded and replied,

"See you at HQ."

He gently took hold of Theresa's arm and stared her in the eyes.

Theresa instantly shivered as she felt herself shifting, almost as if she was becoming a part of the shadow itself. A mass of swirling black and purple spun in front of her eyes, and she squeezed them tightly shut to block out the dizzying nausea.

"You can open your eyes now, it's not like we're going to kill you."

Theresa opened one eye and looked around for the speaker.

The boy from earlier stood before her, a small smirk twitching at the edges of his mouth.

"Who…who are you?"

She stammered, crawling backwards in fear until she was pressed against the wall.

"F-Stop."

The stranger replied coolly, leaning casually against the wall across from her.

"F-Stop?"

Theresa echoed questioningly.

F-Stop pursed his lips and exhaled heavily.

"Yeah. F-Stop. But, ever since the Big Bang a few days ago,"

He began explaining while eyeing her,

"I've been known around here as Hotstreak."

He finished, holding up a hand that burst into flames as if on cue.

Hotstreak cocked his head at her.

"Who're you, anyway?"

"Theresa."

She answered hesitantly.

"No, I mean your gang name."

"Gang name?"

She looked down for a moment and found herself staring at her hands…at her claws.

She looked back up.

"Talon. I'm Talon."

"Heh."

"Welcome to the gang, Talon."

The shadowy figure emerged from the wall behind Theresa and reached down a hand to help her up off the floor.

Talon woke the next morning on a sofa, covered with a light ragged blanket of sorts.

She stretched and yawned, her eyes opening as she looked around.

Several other people were occupying the room she was in, which appeared to be an abandoned public building of sorts.

"Rise and shine, bird-girl."

Another unfamiliar male voice remarked from behind the sofa.

Talon sat up to see who it was that spoke.

Another boy, this one with purple hair and a wide grin, eyed her while tossing a hacky-sack from one hand to the other.

"Nice to finally see you're not dead."

He commented jokingly before turning his full attention back to the tossing of the hacky-sack.

"Hey, rise 'n shine, sleeping birdie."

Hotstreak remarked from where he was sitting at a table, playing poker with another unfamiliar face.

The stranger playing the game with Hotstreak silently nodded in Talon's direction, intent on keeping his poker face.

Ebon rose out of a swirling black and purple puddle from the floor, sitting on a chair across from the sofa Talon sat on.

"That's Shiv."

He explained, jerking his head in the purple-haired boy's direction.

Turning his gaze in the other unfamiliar boy's direction, he finished,

"And that's Rubberband Man."

Talon nodded and stood up from the sofa, wincing as she felt her shoulder.

Luckily, it had just been grazed by the bullet, but it would still take a few days to heal—at least.

"Feh. This is _so _boring."

Shiv complained after a few more minutes of tossing the hacky-sack around.

"Yeah…let's to steal something from somewhere."

Hotstreak agreed, throwing down his deck of poker cards as he apparently lost the match to Rubberband Man.

Ebon turned his gaze to Talon.

"You up for a run around Dakota, or not?"

"Um…okay. Sure."

Talon slowly replied, glancing over at the others, who were ready to spring out of the hideout at Ebon's signal.

The dark leader narrowed his eyes and sank back into the pool of purple and black from whence he had come.

Talon followed Hotstreak's steps, shadowing as close behind him and Shiv as she possibly could.

Shiv glanced back at her over his shoulder at her.

"Getting a big clingy, aren't we?"

He remarked with a snicker.

Talon slowed her pace and allowed some distance to gather between her and the two boys before taking stride again and continuing to shadow them.

The three of them made their way down the dark streets of downtown Dakota, Shiv and Hotstreak joking with each other and almost completely ignoring Talon except for an occasional glance in her direction.

She shuffled along behind them, somewhat nervous.

What was it they were heading off to do?

She found out minutes later when they stopped in front of Dakota's mall. Ebon was already there, hidden in the shadow of a van.

He stepped forward.

"It's a free-for-all. Steal what cash you can and get out. We'll meet back at HQ."

He commanded before sliding back into the shadows and appearing again inside the glass doors of a Hot Topic.

Hotstreak and Shiv high-fived each other before each of them took off toward the entrance.

Talon shifted nervously before jogging at an easy pace after them. The two boys split their directions when they entered the shopping mall. Talon watched in fascination Shiv's hands morphed into foot-long blades that he slashed back and forth a few times before darting to the cash registers and slashing at them as well. Dollar bills flew in every direction, Shiv gleefully jumping about with a huge grin on his face to gather it up with his hands that had morphed again, this time into what looked to be a net.

A bouncing sound was heard from behind Talon, and she turned to see a large purple bouncing ball with a silver stripe in the center

Talon blinked.

Eyes and a face emerged from the bouncing ball as it shifted into its human form: Rubberband Man.

He stretched like a slinky over to another section of cash registers and started catching all the floating money.

"Hey, Talon, come over here!"

Hotstreak called to her, his body completely engulfed in flame.

Talon sprinted to Hotstreak's side, wondering what he wanted her there for.

He pointed to a section of ATMs that were aligned side-by-side against the wall.

"Use your scream thing…or whatever it is that you do. Crack 'em open."

Talon nodded obediently and turned to face the ATMs.

She opened her mouth and screamed, but nothing came out—it sounded just like a normal teenage girl's cry for help.

Hotstreak cocked an eyebrow, his arms folded across his chest impatiently.

Talon tried again, but with the same results.

"Look, do you have to like…get pissed off at someone or something like that?"

Hotstreak suggested, still impatient.

Alex's image suddenly entered Talon's mind, and her eyes flashed in rage.

The shriek emitted from her lips a third time, this time sending out the expected purple hypersonic sound waves.

One by one as Talon directed her voice at them, the ATMs burst open, sending torrents of green bills to jet out of them.

Hotstreak grinned and began to gather them up in a large duffel bag, tossing another one in Talon's direction.

Talon caught the duffel bag and frantically began catching the money as it fell, stuffing it rapidly into the bag as fast as possible.

The teenage boy looked over at her.

"Be right back, keep going."

"…Okay…"

Talon murmured in reply, not looking to see where Hotstreak was going as he rushed away from the ATMs.

She suddenly heard frantic screams ringing throughout that section of the mall as the sound of several small multiple explosions joined them.

She turned around to see what it was, and found that he was shooting fireballs at all the register telephones, destroying them so that the civilians that had been shopping inside the mall wouldn't be able to call the police on the gang.

Apparently, it didn't work.

Sirens screamed from outside the mall as armed policemen soon filed out of their patrol cars and surrounded the entrance, trembling in fear as they held their handguns out in front of them.

"Rubber boy! Get the chick out!"

Shiv yelled as his left hand morphed into a grappling hook that he shot out at the ceiling before pulling himself up on it and crawling out of the scene through an air vent.

Rubberband Man's arm stretched from the spot where he was gathering jewelry from a Kay Jeweler's and grabbed Talon by the waist, causing her to drop the duffel bag of cash as she was snapped back to him by the elastic force.

"Hang on."

He commanded, his other arm stretching to grab the duffel bag that she'd dropped.

After stuffing the duffel bag with the jewelry he'd gotten, he grasped Talon with a firmer grip and stretched out his entire body like a slinky again, moving in a somewhat slither-like motion as the two of them ricocheted over to the exit, which the police officers hadn't thought to surround.


End file.
